


Fish Out of Water

by MelonPalooza



Category: RWBY
Genre: Gen, Oscar is a fish faunus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-07
Updated: 2019-12-07
Packaged: 2021-02-17 22:33:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21700804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelonPalooza/pseuds/MelonPalooza
Summary: Why does Oscar have bandages on his neck? To cover his gills, of course!Just a short little ficlet. Takes place when the crew is staying at Atlas Academy.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 81





	Fish Out of Water

“Hey Blake, can you help me reapply my bandages?” Oscar walked into team RWBY’s room, holding up a roll of the stuff. “I think practice threw off my left shoulder and I can’t reach around my neck.”

“Sure, Oscar,” Blake answered, closing her book. She went over to sit on her bunk, patting on the empty space next to her. Oscar nodded before handing her the bandages and sitting down at his designated seat. This conversation attracted the attention of the other members of her team, who gave each other a look.

“Why Blake?” Ruby asked. She would have assumed that he’d be more comfortable asking a member of team JNR, seeing that he was bunking with them. It also made especially more sense if he had asked either Jaune or Ren as well. 

“Oh, no offense to you guys. But it’s just more comfortable when a fellow faunus does it,” Oscar replied nonchalantly. 

A crash from the hallway alerted the room’s attention to the noise. Nora had crashed into Ren, who crashed into Jaune, who was standing still from the news.

“Um, excuse me?” Jaune asked.

“Oh, sorry,” Oscar said, blushing. “I didn’t know that would cause so much offense. You guys are great, but I would prefer it if Blake did it.”

“You’re...a faunus?” Ren asked, recovering from the crash into his tank of a teammate. 

“Yeah? I take no precaution in hiding these,” Oscar said, pointing to his bandages. Blake was in the process of removing them, revealing a set of gills underneath. Gasps of varying degrees rippled through the onlooking crowd.

“I just thought you were covering up a scar or something,” Ruby said, forcing herself to not stare. “I didn’t want to pry.”

“That makes sense,” Oscar smiled awkwardly, scratching his cheek. He looked around at his comrades. Everyone was equally giving him an awed expression—sans Blake, who was concentrating to apply a fresh layer of bandages. “Wait, none of you guys knew I was a faunus?”

“I don’t think it’s common knowledge for humans that marinal faunus keep their gills under wraps,” Blake explained. Everyone’s eyes immediately turned to Blake.

“Wait, Blake. You _knew_?” Jaune asked.

She nodded with a quirked eyebrow, “Like I just said. Humans might not know about it, but it’s a frequent occurrence in the marinal faunus community. Practically mandatory if they want to stay on land, even.” 

“Not even practically, strictly,” Oscar corrected. Blake was now tying the bandages off. She gave Oscar back his supplies. “Thanks,” he told her.

“No problem,” she simply replied. The exchange was so casual, one would think they had done it before. Blake got up to return to the book at her desk.

“But like, _why_?” Nora leaned closer to Oscar. She invited herself to sit on Blake’s bed, leaning on the younger boy for support.

“It’s for breathing convenience, if anything,” Oscar said. “Since they are not vestigial, it means I have two respiratory systems. If my gills are exposed, my body would try to switch to using them to take in oxygen. And since gills can’t breath air, I’d literally start suffocating on land.”

“So you cover the gills to make your body use your nose and mouth instead?” Ruby inquired.

Oscar nodded. “Precisely.”

“That seems wholly inefficient and impractical,” Weiss said. She quickly added, “Uh, no offense.”

Oscar simply shrugged. He didn’t make the rules.

“Well, impractical or not, he can breath underwater and you can’t,” Yang offered.

“Point taken,” Weiss admitted.

Nora started to fidget with anticipation, her expression full of glee and wonder. “So can you stay underwater forever? Do you prefer freshwater or saltwater? Does chlorine have an effect on your breathing at all? Can you even swim in a chlorinated pool? Are you a fast swimmer? Do your fingers get pruney if you stay in water for a long time? Can you see underwater, or does your vision get blurry?” Nora rapid fired her questions, making everyone concerned for her lungs.

“Calm, Nora. Please,” Ren rested a hand on her shoulder. He didn’t use his semblance on her, but the gesture still managed to slow Nora down. She took a deep breath, earning a chuckle from Oscar.

“To answer your first question, yes, I can stay underwater forever. I can even nap in oceans or ponds if I wanted to,” Oscar tapped his chin. “Speaking of which, I think I prefer freshwater? It’s a tad more exhaustive for me to filter the salt, and I tend to run out of breath faster in saltwater. In the same aspect, I can also filter out the chlorine. And, uh..sorry, what were your other questions?”

“Fast swimmer, pruney fingers, underwater vision,” Nora summarized.

“I’m a decent swimmer, but not as fast as those with scales, fins, or tails. Yes, my fingers get pruney, because again, no scales. But I do have a nictitating membrane.”

Silence followed. Everyone looked lost except for Weiss, Ren, and Blake.

“A third eyelid,” Blake explained, closing her book once more. It looked like she wasn’t going to be able to progress further until the conversation concluded. 

“What? Like a reptile? No way. Show me.” Nora insisted.

“Is that appropriate?” Jaune whispered to Blake, who shrugged. It was Oscar’s choice.

“No, no, it’s fine. See?” Oscar closed his inner eyelid, masking his eyes. The new eyelid is mostly transparent, with a shiny film on its surface. Oscar could see through the membrane and in turn his friends could still see his pupils and irises. “This way, I can see underwater. I’m surprised you all find it fascinating. Blake has them too, after all. More interesting ones, as well.”

Everyone turned to Blake, who looked like she wanted to be anywhere but here.

“Wait, was that something they _also_ didn't know?” Oscar asked Blake, who nods. He winced in reaction at her reply. “Sorry. I didn’t know that was a secret?”

“It wasn’t,” Blake clarified, shrugging. “It’s just not exactly a thing that comes up in normal conversation.”

“Well, this we have to see. If you want to, of course,” Yang said. She was trying to be polite, but it was obvious Yang was just as intrigued as Nora.

“It’s. Ah, it’s hard for me to do it on command,” Blake said, blushing. She lowered her eyelids, closing them slowly. From the corners of her eyes, the milky membrane crept slowly across her eyeballs. 

“That is. So. Awesome!” Nora exclaimed. 

Blake blinked rapidly, her eyes returning to normal.

“You should do that to scare Ruby in the middle of the night,” Yang snickered. Ruby scowled at the implications that she would be scared so easily. 

“So, does Atlas have a pool? I want a breath holding contest,” Nora challenged.

“Nora, we all know you are going to lose this. Oscar can literally sleep underwater,” Weiss countered.

“Where is the fun if we’re not even going to try?” Nora whined. “Come on, Oscar. Are you in? Or are you _in_?”

“Please don’t hurt yourself,” Ren told her. Before anyone else could add anything else, Nora grabbed Oscar by the wrist to drag him out into the hallway.

“But I _just_ redid my bandages,” Oscar complained to deaf ears. Nora was too revved up to hear him.

“We’re gonna...go,” Jaune said, pointing towards the absconding pair. “Gonna make sure neither of them get hurt.”

“Good idea,” Weiss nodded. “There are three pools in the school, by the way. So good luck with that.”

Jaune and Ren bid farewell to team RWBY before departing to find their missing teammates. Blake returned to her book once more, eager to continue the story.

“So...” Yang said. “Is no one going to point out that Blake has two sets of ears? Because I will if nobody else is going to.”

Blake sighed in exasperation.


End file.
